Do Your Business Strategies Include Web 2.0 Techniques?
by Adele Sommers
What exactly is "Web 2.0?" Depending on what we happen to be doing, we're likely to have many different levels of understanding of the Web's latest capabilities.
 Many opinions exist. Wikipedia.org explains that Web 2.0 includes many applications and loosely associated technologies such as wikis, blogs, social networking, open source software, open content, file sharing, peer production, and so forth. Web 2.0 sites often feature rich, user-friendly interfaces, and may include elements such as:
- Multimedia blog publishing tools
- Membership-based, social networking environments
- Wiki or forum software to support user-generated content
- Podcasts, RSS feeds, and other kinds of many-to-many publishing
- "Mashups" (merging content from different sources)
Web 2.0 Web sites allow people to do more than just retrieve information. The latest Web technologies allow customers to run software applications entirely through a browser. Users can own the data and exercise control over it, as opposed to simply viewing it (examples: online banking, Google Docs, and Google Calendar). In another variation, companies can design and assemble products collaboratively with their customers.
Many people use the immensely popular Web 2.0 venues to construct shared social (e.g., FaceBook.com, LinkedIn.com), entertainment-based (e.g., SecondLife.com, YouTube.com), and educational (e.g., Wikipedia.org) experiences.
Similarly, businesses can incorporate Web 2.0 social, entertainment-based, and educational elements into their product designs and marketing to increase audience engagement. Below are three case studies of businesses that have successfully turned their audiences into "raving fans" by doing just that.
Case Study #1: The "Jing Project"
 TechSmith, the makers of the widely admired Camtasia Studio desktop video software, have introduced a novel experiment called the Jing Project.
What is the Jing Project, you ask? Well...Jing is sort of like a product. But because it's meant to evolve continuously based on how people use it, it's been dubbed a "project" instead. To invite as many people as possible to experiment with it in all sorts of ways, TechSmith offers Jing for *free* on both Windows and Mac OS platforms.
Jing itself is a screen/audio/video capture tool that integrates with TechSmith's sharing site for business and academic videos, Screencast.com.
Once launched, Jing "lives" unobtrusively as a small, softly glowing orb in the upper corner of your screen. Whenever you need it to use it, you simply "wake it up" with your pointer. The latest version even has a basic image editor that lets you annotate any still screen shots you take. As you try out different ways of applying its flexible features, TechSmith encourages you to share your experiences on the Jing blog.
TechSmith's object lesson: By inviting people to try a *free* tool and report back on how they engage with it, TechSmith can gather a constant flow of product ideas and requirements directly from its customers. It's a brilliant and imaginative way to involve one's audiences in a conversation about exactly what matters to them. Using just a blog and the same core idea, you, too, can let your audience's experiences shape the direction of your product design and development.
 Case Study #2: The "66-Second Video Contest"
How would you like to get your prospects (not necessarily even your customers) to help you market your offerings? Doesn't that sound like a dream come true?
That's exactly what *Strategic Profits* did by sponsoring a wacky, high-stakes contest to help promote Rich Schefren's "Web Marketing 2.0" report.
The contest went something like this: The readers who downloaded the report were invited to create a 66-second video on any topic, as long as it promoted the report. Each submission was judged in one of these arenas: "Most Humorous," "Most Outrageous," "Most Compelling," and Most Informational." Only a few days elapsed between the contest kickoff and the submission deadline, which meant that the videos would have to be relatively simple but highly inventive.
In all, readers submitted 89 videos. One finalist was selected in each category, along with a "super grand prize" recipient. All selected videos appeared on YouTube, which ensured subsequent viewing by a much more massive audience. Although the prizes offered were rather generous, the payoff for the sponsors was even greater in terms of the "viral" (no-cost, tell-a-friend) advertising. The moral of the story: Entice your audiences to sing your praises to create invaluable, peer-to-peer "social proof."
Case Study #3: "Wine Library TV"
 If you think you can market only intangible items using social media and Web 2.0 technology, think again!
This case study describes the highly lucrative wine enterprise propelled by wine maven Gary Vaynerchuk.
Growing up in his family's wine
shop, the "Wine Library," Gary sampled all wines that entered the store. As a teenager, he went on to learn the business inside-out. As customers increasingly sought out Gary's advice, within five years, Wine Library grew from a $4 million business to a $45 million business, according to his Web site.
By creating a Web-based, educational dimension to the wine store, Gary developed a whole new paradigm driven by his own rules. At Wine Library TV, he reinvented the concept of wine tasting for a new generation. With a zany, outspoken approach and somewhat controversial viewpoints on wine, Gary has succeeded in attracting a cult-like following of over 60,000 viewers a day, whom he educates on wine flavors, wine buying, and many other topics.
How does he go about this? The videos are not fancy TV studio productions. The Web site consists of a blog that hosts the nearly 400 short, videotaped sessions he has created over time to answer his viewers' queries and otherwise interact with his audiences. Linked to the site are the online Wine Library store, a busy viewer forum, and a variety of other networked venues. In short, Gary uses the power of social marketing -- blogging, video, audio, social networking and bookmarking sites, and other media -- to create a "viral" presence that rivets and sustains attention.
In conclusion, the case studies above demonstrate that by harnessing the power of Web 2.0 social media, and applying courageous and novel thinking, we can "grab our audiences by the eyeballs and eardrums" and imaginatively retain their enthusiasm.
Copyright 2008 Adele Sommers
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With the New Year in full swing, it's not surprising to see a plethora of product launches occurring weekly by people who regularly use the Web as a launching pad. What is noteworthy, however, is the number of launches specifically for products or programs about the potential of using Web 2.0 marketing, including Web-based social media, for growing a business.
